Unit-3 Reservations-FO-Notes-By-Priya-Sharma-March-2020 PDF

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Unit-3

RESERVATIONS

The term reservation is defined as ‘blocking or booking a particular room type for a guest, for a definite period of time, for a particular guest’. To ensure a safe and secure place for stay during their visit to another town, guests generally prefer to make advance reservations in hotels and other types of accommodation units. All hotels will readily accept reservations in order to achieve high occupancy and to maximize their room revenue. When a guest makes a reservation for a definite time period, it is expected that the hotel will accept and honor its commitment by a contract between the hotel and the guest. A reservation is therefore is a bilateral contract between a hotel and a guest, according to which the hotel must provide the specified room type to the guest and the guest must agree to pay all relevant charges. This is also known as CONTRACT OF BOOKING. If either the hotel or the guest wishes to alter or cancel the reservation, this can be done only through a mutual agreement. If a guest fails to inform the hotel about his cancellation, the hotel may decide to retain the advance deposit received from the guest earlier to cover up for any loss of room revenue. The amount forfeited when a guest does not inform about his cancellation to the hotel is termed as RETENTION CHARGES. Alternatively if a hotel is unable to provide room to a guest upon his arrival, the hotel has to provide alternative accommodation of similar standard in another hotel and pay for any differences in room rates and any additional expenses the guest may have to incur. The reservation department handles all reservation requests for accommodation, interacts with the customers and constantly monitors the room status and the reservation status.

 Importance of Reservation The role of reservation department is not limited to making reservation. It also maintains records of the hotel occupancy, which helps in planning sales and marketing strategies. 1. Importance of reservation for guests:  Ensures room on arrival – A guest who makes prior reservation is ensured of the required type of room and number of rooms for his entire stay in the city. This saves him from the difficulty of finding accommodation on arrival especially during peak seasons when most of the hotels are full.  Budgeting – As the guest is informed about the tariff of room reserved at time of booking, he is able to budget his holiday or tour, taking in account the amount he spends on his stay, food, entertainment etc.  He is able to plan his holiday or tour without worrying about the basic needs of accommodation and food.  Other facilities – The guest is ensured of certain facilities offered by the hotel which can be confirmed by making the reservation e.g. iron and ironing board on loan basis, laundry services in hotel, Wi-Fi, tea and coffee maker, kids’ zone, provision of babysitter, etc.  A business traveler is also able to give the hotel address to his associates for any meetings, correspondence transfers to and from the hotel.

2. Importance for the hotel:  Prior reservation gives the hotel an indication of the level of business likely to be encountered during any particular period. The reservation manager knows the amount of business ensured during that period from the confirmed reservations.  Gives the first impression of the hotel to the guest.  Sells the main product of hotel (accommodation).  Generate customers for other departments.  Provide important management information to the guest.  Reservation department updates the room availability record and thus maximize the revenue generated from room booking.  Reservation department prepares the housekeeping and front desk for arrival by communicating the arrival details taken at the time of reservation.  Reservation department helps in planning the distribution of the staff at the front desk-the roaster for the staff can be prepared according to the number of confirmed reservation for the day.  Reservation department provides reservation data to the finance department, which forecast the volume of business on the basis of confirmed reservation.  It generates the customer for the hotel-first time customer as well as repeat customer-by handling the reservation queries and request politely.  It maintains the hotel occupancy record, which helps the management to plan business strategies-change in room rates, renovation of rooms, expansion program and opening a new unit in the city.  Types of Reservation a) Tentative Reservation b) Confirmed Reservation – i) Non- Guaranteed Reservation ii) Guaranteed Reservation c) Waitlisted Reservation Tentative Reservation – It is a reservation request that a prospective guest makes on a tentative basis for his particular stay dates. The hotel holds the room for the guest till a cut-off date, by which the guest should confirm the reservation. Upon confirmation from the guest, the hotel changes the tentative reservation to a confirmed reservation, and updates its records accordingly. If the confirmation is not received from the prospective guest by cut-off date, the reservation is cancelled and the rooms’ inventory is updated. Confirmed Reservation – Once a guest confirms a reservation request, the hotel blocks a room for specified stay dates and sends a written confirmation of the same to the guest either through letter or email. Confirmed reservation is of two types-

i)Non- guaranteed Reservation: When a guest confirms her reservation at a hotel but does not guarantee it with an advance deposit, it is treated as a non-guaranteed reservation. In this type of reservation, the hotel agrees to hold the room for the guest till the cancellation hour (which is usually 6 PM), unless the guest informs the hotel about his late arrival. If a guest does not arrive by cancellation hour, the hotel is free to release the room and sell it to any walk-in guest. This enables the hotel to cover the probable loss due to a no-show. Hotels nearing full occupancy might accept only guaranteed reservations once a specified number of expected arrivals is achieved. ii) Guaranteed Reservation: A guaranteed reservation is a confirmation that the hotel will hold the reserved room for the guest and not release it to any other guest even if the guest doesn’t arrive on time. This requires the guest to make an advance payment (part or full, depending on the hotel policy and hotel occupancy for requested stay dates). The hotel has to hold the room for such guests even beyond its cancellation hours, till next day’s check-out time in case of no-show of guest. The guest is sure of desired accommodation ready for him even he arrives late without any prior information to the hotel. The guaranteed reservation can be obtained through one of the following ways Prepayment and Advance DepositPrepayment requires payment in full be received from the guest whereas Advance deposit requires payment of a specific amount of money as deposit (generally one room night rent plus taxes) from the guests. A guaranteed reservation requires the payment of the room rent or a specified amount in advance, known as pre-payment. As the hotel holds the room for the guest even after cancellation hours, pre-payment protects the hotel from any loss of revenue in case of last minute cancellation or a no-show. Pre-payment can be made by sending demand draft or depositing cash at the hotel. Cash deposit is the most preferred mode of accepting guaranteed reservation by most of the hotels. Guests can alternatively choose to pay the full amount in advance through their credit/ charge cards. A guest should send a letter authorizing the hotel to charge payment to their credit cards account for obtaining guaranteed reservation, along with a copy of the front and back of the credit card. The hotel staff must check the validity and authenticity of the card before using it as a guarantee.  Contractual Agreement – A hotel may have a contract with an individual or a company for providing guaranteed reservations. According to such a contract, the hotel confirms the reservation for the individual or a person referred by a company on guaranteed basis, and the person or company agrees to pay for the reservation, even in case of no-show. Hotel may have contractual agreement with the followingi. Tour Operators and Travel Agencies ii. Companies or Corporate houses iii. Allotment iv. MCO

Tour Operators and Travel Agencies: They make bulk purchases of rooms at a relatively low contracted price. They guarantee the hotel a minimum number of room nights in a particular period and agree to pay the room charges even if they are unable to fill the number of rooms as per their agreement with the hotel. The hotel guarantee these reservations on the basis of vouchers issued by the travel agencies or tour operators, by which they agree to pay for the room and service charges mentioned on the voucher; other services are charged from the guest. Companies or Corporate houses: In this case, a company may enter into a contract with a hotel, whereby the company guarantees payment for its employees or sponsored guests and accepts the financial responsibilities for any no-shows. Hotels guarantee these reservations on the basis of a letter from the company, called a bill to company (BTC) letter, acknowledging the guest as its employee or client and agreeing to pay his bills as per contract. Allotment: Allotment is a set of rooms booked for a particular period of time for a company or for a group. This type of reservation is made for training courses, conferences or for private parties. A guest may be asked for a booking reference or for any other verification before they are provided a room. Allotments are managed by the reservations manager or the group coordinator and the operational issues are checked on a daily basis. Miscellaneous Charge Order (MCO): The Airline Reporting Corporation (ARC) issues MCO and thus guarantee payment to the hotel if the travel agency defaults on payment or if the guest is a no show.

iii)Waitlisted ReservationA reservation is waitlisted when a requested category of room is not available for the requested dates. A waitlisted reservation will be confirmed when a hotel receives a request for room cancellation in the same category. The hotel does not guarantee a room in case of waitlisted reservation, it is understood that the room will be assigned to the guest in case of a cancellation or a no show.

 Modes of Reservation The mode of reservation tells us HOW the reservation has reached the hotel. For example, a reservation request may reach the hotel through a written mode such as – letter, fax, telex or email or through a verbal mode like telephone or in person.

Modes of Reservation

Written Mode (Letter, Fax, Telex, E-mail)

Verbal Mode (In person, Telephone)

1. Written mode:  Letter – this mode is commonly used by companies and corporate houses, travel agents and tour operators who send in their reservation request to the hotel on their company letterheads. The hotel will make the reservation as per details given in the letter.  Fax – Fax or Facsimile transmission uses electronic scanning technique to send copies of a document over an ordinary telephone line through a special machine that prints identical copies of the document. This makes it possible to send a reservation request instantaneously. Hotel processed the request as per details and send the confirmation letter to the guest.  Telex or Tele Printer Exchange – involves the use of specialized telephone lines, where the message is communicated in a written form.  E-mail – It is the most common method of communication. E-mail or Electronic mail that makes it possible to contact the hotel instantaneously. This is a fast and very convenient method of reservation. 2.

Verbal mode:

Reservation requests may also reach the hotel through verbal mode or oral communication, i.e. in person or over the telephone. The advantage of oral communication is that it generates immediate response and feedback and is very fast and convenient.  In person – if an individual or a representative goes to the hotel to book rooms for future, it is termed as an in person reservation.  Telephone – the most common method of direct reservation communications, a prospective guest may telephone the hotel directly. The reservationist takes the information sequentially as per the script. Most of the hotels these days have high-end systems that record a call which can be used later on, for training purpose.

 Sources of Reservation A hotel receives reservation requests from different sources like direct guests, central reservation system, travel agencies, etc. 1. Direct Reservation or Property Direct – When a hotel receives a reservation request directly from a guest without any mediator, it is termed as direct reservation. An individual or group can contact the hotel directly.

2. Travel Agents and Tour Operator – Travel Agents are intermediary retail agents who sell rooms, airline seats and other products and services to the travelers. On the other hand, Tour Operators are wholesalers who purchase the rooms, airline seats and other travel products from the various principle suppliers and form a package and finally sell the packages to a travel agent. Many guests make reservations through a travel agent or a tour operator. The agent will normally take a pre-payment from the guests and send a confirmation to the hotel, and issue a TAV (Travel Agent Voucher) on its behalf. Travel agents generally receive a commission for their services to the guest, or to the hotel or both. 3. Companies and Corporate Houses – They may have special contracted rates, assigned to them on the basis of volume of business they provide. Since these companies also provide bulk business to the hotels, the hotel may decide to offer low rates. 4. Corporate Travel Departments – Most corporate organizations have a separate travel department consisting of hired professional who arrange and cater for the travel and accommodation requirements of the employees. 5. Hotel Sales and Marketing – Most of the hospitality properties have sales representatives who approach various market segments and combine their efforts of selling products and services offered by a hotel, thus generating a large amount of revenue for the hotel. 6. Intersell Agencies – These are multiple product handlers, i.e. they deal with multiple products, such as hotel reservations, car rentals, travel arrangements, airline reservations and so on. Intersell agencies such as Make My Trip, Yatra.com are rich source of reservation to the hotels. 7. Central Reservation System (CRS) – CRS is a computer based reservation system, which enables a prospective guest to make reservations in any of the properties of a single chain. The CRS office deals with direct guests, corporate houses, travel agents and so on by means of toll free telephone numbers. Equipped with the necessary communication equipment, the CRS office works 7 days a week and 24 hours a day. They have accurate and up-to-date information of the number of rooms available for the day of the member hotels, thereby, assisting the guests to make reservations in more than one hotel through a CRS. In case rooms are not available, the reservationists can direct the reservation to the other member hotel. 8. Global Distribution System (GDS) It is a world-wide computerized reservation network, and is used as a single point of access for reserving hotel rooms, airline seats, car rentals and various other travel related services by travel agents, large corporations and online reservation sites. Being a link between the producers and the end users of travel related products and services; GDS provides a bundle of

products to the prospectiv ve users across geographical boundaries. Thhe most common GDS used around the globe are Amadeus, SABRE, Galileo and Worldspan.

 Hierarchy of Reservation Section of a Large Hotel Reservvation Manager/ Revenue Manager Resservation Supervisor Reeservation Assistant

 Furniture and E artment Equipments used in Reservation Depa 1. 2. 3. 4.

An office for Reservation Manager Status board for knowiing room status or Computers Filing racks, cabinets for f storing reference material Telephone, fax machin nes, scanners, printers etc.

 Systems of Reserrvation Systems of Reservation

Manual or NonAutomated

SemiAutomated

Fully Automated

Manual or Non-automated System S of reservation – In a manual system, all the reservation records are maintained manually y. This old system is reservation is suitable for a small property, where the number of rooms is less and the volume of reservation requests is also low.

Room Availability Records used in Manual System Year Planner/ Stop & Go Board Room Status Board/ Perpetual Y As the name suggests, this chart  

Shows the rooms booking position for 1 year on continuous basis. The status are shown undeer three categoriesa) Sold Out- means no roooms are available for booking for the requessted period. b) On Request – means rooms can be blocked subjected to cancelllation and the guest is given the status of waitlist.

c) Free Sales – means the rooms are freely available for booking. The Free sale status changes to Sold out & further to On request in case of reservation request and with the cancellation, the status changes from On request to Sold out and further to Free Sales. 1. Advance Letting Chart (ALC) or Conventional Booking Chart  It is an old system used only by small hotels and those which do not have computerized system.  This system uses charts on monthly basis.  Since there are max. of 31 days in a month, the chart has 31 vertical columns which indicates dates & on the horizontal rows the room numbers are mentioned.  The number of horizontal rows will depend on the number of rooms in the hotel like single room, double room, etc.  Abbreviations for room features like SR for Single room, Sp for facing Swimming Pool, DR for Double room etc. are used.  Blocking, cancellation & amendment entries are generally made by PENCIL on the chart, so that the chart does not become messy by frequent usage & maintain records effectively.  On receiving the request of booking from the prospective guest which include the type of room and period for which booking is required, the reservationist checks up the position from the chart & then blocks the room on the chart with the help of a pencil by drawing a line from the concerned dates against the room nos.  All HK status such as OOO rooms, U/R rooms etc. for that period are also recorded on the chart so as to avoid booking of such rooms. Advantages – I. II.

It is visual reference of future expected business of hotel. Useful for small hotel where guest’s length of stay is long.

Disadvantages – I.

It is not easy to find out number of rooms booked or available by looking at glance in case of large transit hotel. It is difficult to show overbooking.

II.

HOTEL ABC Conventional Booking Chart April, 2017 Date

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Mr.

A

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

Mr.

J

. # No

SR 101

29

30

DR

Mr

X

Mr

L

Ms.

K

102 DR 103 DR 104 SUI 105 SUI 106

April, 2017 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Mr. A booked a single room (# No. 101) from 4th to 12th April, 17. Mr. J booked a single room (# No. 101) from 25th to 30th April, 17. Ms. K booked a double room(# No. 102) from 13th to 21st April, 17. M...